Martin Scorsese nearly stopped making films after working with Harvey Weinstein

nypost.com:

“Gangs of New York.”“I realized that I couldn’t work if I had to make films that way ever again,” Scorsese told GQ in a profile published last week.“If that was the only way that I was able to be allowed to make films, then I’d have to stop,” he said. “Because the results weren’t satisfying.

It was at times extremely difficult, and I wouldn’t survive it. I’d be dead. And so I decided it was over, really.”Scorsese explained that he and Weinstein, who was sentenced to 39 years in prison in New York and California for rape and sexual assault convictions, often sparred over the length and budget of “Gangs of New York.”In 2004, Scorsese found himself directing “The Aviator” — Weinstein’s production company, Miramax, was a distributor. “And I was against that; there was a meeting, and I was forced into that position,” Scorsese told GQ. “I’d already been, uh, made pregnant, as they said.

And there’s no way you’re getting out of it.”He continued, “But the shoot went well, the editing went well until the last couple of weeks of editing.

And they came in and did some things that I felt were extremely mean.” GQ reported that Miramax and Warner Bros. ended up cutting off funding for the film, leaving Scorsese to finish it with $500,000 out of his own pocket.